Sílvia Benedito teaches graduate core studios in design and representation at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Her research is focused in the genealogy of landscape as moving image in the context of the aural-visual culture of representing time, space and processes. As the practice of landscape is faced with new territories of intervention, pressed with economic, cultural and ecological demands and challenged with ever-growing modes of communication, the role of time-based media is paramount to successfully convey ideas of design and transformation. The work, ultimately, aims to dissect latent intersections between landscape and moving image as it foregrounds agencies of production.

Benedito received a degree in Architecture and Music in Coimbra and a post-professional degree in Urban Design from Harvard Graduate School of Design. A former Senior Associate at James Corner Field Operations, where she led many public and private urban design projects and small-scale public places, Benedito started her practice in New York and Germany called OFICINAA.  As an award-winning firm focused in detail and strategy, craft and culture, economic performance and sustainable environments, OFICINAA won several awards and mentions in multiple competitions: First prize in Europan 9 (2008), Honorable Mention for Berlin’s Freedom and Unity Memorial in the non-built projects Architizer competition (2009), First Prize in Europan 10 (2010), Short-listed for the Olympic Village Master Plan competition for Munich’s 2018 Olympic Winter Games Bid (2010) and First prize for the Ingobräu Master Plan and Housing Development competition (2011). OFICINAA was published in several magazines and exhibited at the Tennessee University and at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2009 with a vision for Tirana’s urban center. Also, at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2007, Benedito broadcasted the video work produced by her students while teaching at University of Pennsylvania. Recently, Benedito lectured at the IFLA in Zurich dedicated to the topic “Scales of Nature;” OFICINAA is finalizing their first built project in Ingolstadt, Germany, a 500 m2 housing complex.

Benedito was also the cofounder of Home-Room, an informal space in New York City for artists and designers to present their work, research and ideas publicly. Home-room explores the enormous flux of unpublished and unedited ideas as means to connect discussions and thoughts amongst creative individuals.

Benedito was awarded numerous prizes and fellowships such as the Luso-American fellowship, the Gulbenkian Foundation prize, the Research Grant from the Sciences, Arts and Technology Foundation, European Community (EU), and the prestigious Fernando Távora Prize from Oporto Architects’ League. In progress is an upcoming publication titled Emotional Grid/Endemic Urbanism(s)—The Tour of the Brazilian cities from the XVI Century.